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Class in the Spotlight
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Students examine new media
By Monique Bos Published: Friday, June 15, 2007 On May 21, art history professor Timothy Jackson, Ph.D., organized a “New Media Day of Deep Play” for students in his three sections of Survey of New Media. The event, held at the SCAD Student Center, featured student presentations, lectures by SCAD professors, and a video teleconference with the authors of the textbook Jackson uses in the course. The 90 students came and went according to their class schedules, and many of them participated in question-and-answer sessions with speakers, as well as sharing their own projects. Members of the SCAD community and the public also were welcome to attend the event free of charge. The day began with Jackson introducing and discussing the concept of deep play. As defined by Joline Blais, Ph.D., and Jon Ippolito, authors of the textbook “At the Edge of Art,” deep play is an immersive experience that can both inspire creativity and highlight cultural traits that may otherwise be unacknowledged. They look specifically at video games as a means of deep play in contemporary American society. Following Jackson’s talk, and at several other times throughout the day, students presented their analyses and interpretations of new media works of art, and during a pizza lunch, they had the chance to experience deep play games they and their classmates had designed. During the afternoon, SCAD art history professor Edward Shanken, Ph.D., discussed “Thoughts on Deep Play,” and Carla Diana, an interactive design and game development professor, talked about “The Hybrid Designer.” Broadcast design and motion graphics professor Justin Ascott screened and discussed his work in “Dark Play.” In response to a student question, Diana emphasized the importance of play for people. “There’s something comforting about play,” she said. “There’s a moment when you lose the fear, lose being self-conscious.” The students also had the opportunity to speak with Blais and Ippolito, both of whom are professors of new media at the University of Maine, via a video teleconference. With four screens in the Student Center meeting room, students were able to see the authors as well as the Web sites to which they referred in their own discussion of deep play. In addition to their academic roles, Blais is co-founder and co-director of Still Water Lab for Network Art and Culture, and Ippolito operates the Variable Media Network. Blais discussed the idea that people create their own systems of reality. “What does that mean for game play and game making?” she asked the students. “What kinds of fantasies are we creating to live in?” She talked about violence in video games and American culture, as it affects individuals’ lives, and as a reflection of who has power and who lacks power in a society. She also talked about the history of violence in video games and paradigms by which game designers operate. “Video games — the space of play — are a barometer of what’s happening in the rest of the culture,” she said. Ippolito brought up the Virginia Tech shootings of April 16 and questioned whether video game violence plays a role in that and similar incidents. Blais also talked about the role of addictive drugs — whether illegal, pharmaceutical or caffeine — and the concept of work sometimes being destructive. She discussed recent games that allow users to create and populate worlds. “I’m curious about why you think we have created games that allow us to play God,” she told the students. “What’s that about?” “It’s a theological question,” Ippolito observed. “By looking at video games as a test, we start to look at other things around us and at the rest of the world.” “I think having the ability to have students discuss the textbook with the authors is quite empowering,” Jackson said. Also participating in the event via a video teleconference was James Coupe, an artist and research associate at DXARTS at the University of Washington, Seattle. “His work is concerned with systems, agency and control,” Jackson explained. In addition to the “New Media Day of Deep Play,” Jackson also organized “Beauty is the Beast — Defined, Deconstructed, Dismissed: A Panel Discussion on Aesthetics and Other (In)Convenient Issues,” May 25 at the Student Center. Panelists included Jackson; graphic design professors Zoran Belic, Robert Newman and Scott Boylston; liberal arts professor Kaloyan Collin Hariskov; and painting professor Natalija Mijatovic. Both events presented students with the opportunity to hear professors in a variety of disciplines at SCAD discuss ways in which their artistic and academic explorations interconnect in the realm of new media. “We hope to make this a quarterly event,” Jackson said. “We are hoping to promote the minor in new media art through this.”  |
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